"precious Blood"

The two-disc collection features previous albums Precious Memories and Precious Memories Volume II, as well as two previously unreleased songs: “It’s All About Him” and “That’s the Way.” Alan sang “That’s the Way” to his wife, Denise, at their wedding in 1979. “It’s All About Him” was inspired by Denise’s book of the same title. “Inspired by Denise’s strength and ability [in writing her book], I sat down and wrote a song of the same title, hoping to add musically to an already uplifting story,” said Alan.

This is a two-album-on-one-CD release from the U.K.'s branch of Hi Records. Out of the two albums here, Precious Lord is the more staid and religious. Recorded in Nashville and engineered by country producer Billy Sherrill, it's Green's most traditional gospel statement. Standards are abound, with the title track, "How Great Thou Art," "Rock of Ages," and a warm "In the Garden." Although the performances are felt, the country-style production and lack of veering from the script made the effort come off not as moving as one might think. The contemporary original "Morningstar" displayed more of what Green is capable of doing. The blend of Al Green's style and his inherent charm seemed to inform the majority of I'll Rise Again…

High Tide was a highly underrated British band that played psychedelic progressive rock when the genre was in its infancy. "Precious Cargo" is seven tracks of live in the studio slices of hauntingly beautiful yet terrifying soundscapes. Their sound is one that should have been playing in the background of an Alfred Hitchcock film or more recently, a Wes Craven production comes to mind. What made their sound so eerie was the violin of Simon House. Much in the same way Jean Luc Ponty used his instrument, House used his violin as more of a lead instrument and the rest of the band fell in line to fill in the layers to make one impressive wall of sound that would wake up the spirit and startle the thought process; their music was very potent.